The third of 6 episodes talking to the founding sponsors of the Tech4Good South West relaunch, to explore their interest in tech for good and their hopes and ambitions for the TechforGood South West network.

This episode is in conversation with Josh Simpkins , co-founder of Future Talent Group and a bronze sponsor of Tech4Good South West.

"I think for us as recruiters, there's an opportunity. One of our strengths is our network and the people that we work with, the businesses we work with. It feels like now is an amazing time that we can get those people involved."

"There's a really big opportunity to just level up industry standards in what businesses expect from their partners and what overall market standards look like in terms of taking a proactive approach to support in wider nonprofit and charity activities. "

Transcript

Tech4Good South West (00:03.374)

Welcome to the Tech for Good South West podcast brought to you by Annie, Alicia and Ariel. Tech for Good South West has relaunched and we are on a mission to build momentum for the Tech for Good movement across the South West. Our podcast focuses on conversations with charities, investors, startups and initiatives to share their stories, challenges and successes. Our next few episodes are focused on our founding sponsors and their hopes and ambitions for the Tech for Good movement.

Tech4Good South West (00:35.854)

Welcome to the Tech for Good Southwest podcast. I'm Arielle Tye, and I'm really pleased today to be joined in our studio by Josh Simpkins, one of our sponsors. Josh, you're from the Future Talent Group. Could you start by introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about what you do?

Hi, I'm Josh Simpkins and I'm co -founder of Future Talent Group. We are a relatively new recruitment business based out of Bristol. We've been running for just almost a year now.

We set up the company with the mission of being recognized as a trusted talent consultancy, but also to support the wider ecosystems that help our customers thrive and to quantify that. That goes as far as making a clear financial commitment for every placement we make that will go into a community fund and support tech for good, industry initiatives and a wide range of different early careers objectives, which hopefully will benefit the whole region that we work in.

Sounds incredible and we will talk a little bit more about some of those initiatives in a minute. But what's your interest in Tech for Good, Josh? It's a good question.

Our interest is obviously linked to our business that we want to, part of our mission is to support the communities in which we operate. But also a bit further than that, I think we get to work as recruiters with a lot of innovative companies doing exciting things with tech and me and my co -founder have had conversations around what is the impact of some of that technology and will it always be positive? When you look at things like AI, for example, there is a risk that that might increase the digital divide that we already see today. So I think it's really important that we be proactive and if we're in a position that we can positively affect change, we can set clear objectives that we want to work to that.

I think more people that do it and things like the Tech for Good Southwest organization, bringing people together with some clear objectives is going to help people that might want to do something, but not know how to do it, provides a lot more direction. And I think hopefully will be beneficial for everyone in the whole ecosystem and wider Southwest. So you're a recruitment company, but you've also got this social value stuff going on.

Tech4Good South West (02:59.598)

Can you tell me a little bit more about some of these initiatives? Yeah, absolutely. So from our side, in terms of Tech for Good and how I see that, it's quite a broad subject. I think there's so many different elements to it and Tech for Good can mean lots of things to lots of people. For us, there's obviously a talent focus to it. So we focus on early careers with STEM ambassadors. Everyone that comes into our business will become a STEM ambassador, which will allow them to volunteer with early careers and schools.

And we recently, earlier last year, ran a laptops for school project, which links directly into, you know, the bridging, the digital divide activities that I mentioned before. Aside from that, we've obviously got a financial commitment that will scale with the business. So as we grow, you know, we want to make sure that that commitment grows. And aside from South, Tech for Good Southwest, you know, we've also got a project in the pipeline with Science Creates Outreach, which again, links back to, you know, early careers.

Getting people that aren't necessarily linked to tech, you know, through their background or awareness of those sort of career paths and helping support more, a more diverse tech ecosystem and getting people, especially from less privileged backgrounds, into that environment and making, you know, raising awareness that there are career paths for those people in technology. Wow, super inspiring stuff.

So you're one of the sponsors, which is really exciting. And you're talking about your work that you're doing within this ecosystem. What are your hopes and ambitions for the Tech for Good Southwest Network? What do you hope that we'll be able to achieve together?

For us, I think it's quite simple. I mean, I think we've, we felt that rather than doing something on our own and running our own thing, there's a lot more can be done if people come together. And I think Annie snd Sally and the wider team have done an amazing job in centralizing a hub that people can get behind and support. And I think this feels like a big moment that things could really begin to scale up. I think people have been aware of Tech For Good Southwest for a long time, but where we are now, it does feel like it's a point where we could really amplify that impact. And...

Tech4Good South West (05:22.222)

I think it feels like with the combination of sponsors that are involved, there's a really big opportunity to raise awareness and also engage that wider community around our customers and get them interested in this as well. I think for us as recruiters, there's an opportunity, you know, one of our strengths probably is our network and the people that we work with, the businesses we work with. It feels like now is an amazing time that we can get those people involved in it.

And you mentioned now being an amazing time and it really seems like there's so much momentum around tech for good at the moment. And particularly in Bristol in the Southwest, it's really vibrant. Do you know why that is? Like, why, why is it happening at the moment?

I think Bristol at heart has always, has always had a really strong community around it. I think compared to, you know, and there's lots of other brilliant cities in the UK with, with big tech hubs, but Bristol's been a standout for a long time on the community side. I think it's as simple as just so many more businesses seem to be more aware of their social impact and the wider factors other than just profits and that side of business. I think more than ever, even through to the suppliers that they work with, you see a lot more businesses becoming B -Corp now. And I think that momentum only builds over time. And I think certainly for the South West region, I think there's a really big opportunity to just level up industry standards in what businesses expect from their partners and what overall market standards look like in terms of taking a proactive approach to support in wider nonprofit and charity activities.

100 % agree with that. Thank you, Josh.

It's been so good speaking with you and I'm sure that we'll see a lot more of you. Yeah, so thank you very much for joining us. You're most welcome. We look forward to catching up with you soon.